By Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin
PIKESVILLE, Maryland –Continuing my encouragement of people of all religions to read prayers and the Bible, study, and learn to understand what they are reading to improve themselves, society, and the entire world, I will give some history of the Shema, my new translation, and comment on why I changed the literal wording.
The Shema is central to Judaism. Although a divine command and not a prayer, it is the main reading in the morning and evening services, Shacharit and Maariv. It is one of many biblical sections that contains wording that was not intended to be taken literally. While many think the Shema expresses love of God, the command is to constantly think of God because such thinking will improve individuals, society, and the world. While, as the Bible states in Exodus 33:21-23, humans cannot know details about God, people can understand what God made and act creatively with this knowledge.
Two other biblical sections are added to the key section of Deuteronomy 6:4-9. They are Deuteronomy 11:13-21, which tells the benefits of obeying the command, and Numbers 15:37-41, which commands men to wear tzitzit, fringes on garments, to help them remember the command and benefits of complying with 6:4-9.
A sentence was added following Shema’s first sentence, which will be discussed below.[1]
The King James version of Deuteronomy 6:4-9 translates the six verses which are the core part of Shema as follows:
4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord:
5 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
6 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:
7 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
8 And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.
9 And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.
I translate it as follows:
Jews, obey God
Our God
He is unique.
Think of God
Your God
With your entire mind, body, and possessions.
Think of these words that I am now commanding
Constantly.
Teach them passionately to your children,
Speak about them at home and outside,
When you lie down and rise.
Make them like markers on your hands
And items set between your eyes,
As if written on the door of your house
And city gates.
The custom is to cover our eyes while reciting the first sentence to eliminate distractions during this essential reading.
The second sentence of the Shema in the prayer book is said quietly. It reads: “Blessed be the name of the glory of His kingdom forever and ever.” The verse is not in the bible. There are differing views as to its origin. One source is a discussion and story in Talmud tractate Pesachim 56a. The patriarch Jacob is on his deathbed. He questions his sons’ allegiance to God. They respond with the Shema, to which Jacob exclaimed: “Blessed be the name of the glory of His kingdom forever and ever.”
We say it to make the same assertion that Jacob’s children made. The Talmud concludes that it should be said quietly since it is not a Biblical verse.
It is customary to end the holiday of Yom Kippur by reciting the first verse of Shema to affirm again, as Jacob’s sons did, that we have allegiance to God.
Many Jews have the custom, based on Talmud Berachot 60b, to say the Shema before going to sleep. The Talmud tells us that it is proper to go to sleep with words of Torah on our lips.
As the Aramaic translator Targum Onkelos and the commentator Rashi translates Psalms 18:45, Shema means “obey.” God is speaking to the Israelites like a mother speaks to her kids. When she says, “Hear me” or “Listen to me,” she is not referring to the children’s ears; she wants them to obey her.
The Shema mentions Israel, the name the Jews had at the time. I updated it to Jews.
The phrase “God is one” does not mean He is not more than one being; it means “unique,” “inimitable.”
The literal reading is “You must love God” because the ancients believed that thinking came from the heart, not the mind. As Maimonides stressed, Jews should not be passive, loving God or having faith in Him, but know God by understanding what He created or formed. Hence, “love” here means “think” and “know.”
Similarly, “heart” means “mind.”
The Bible uses the Hebrew nefesh. In post-biblical times, the word came to mean “soul,” which some people mistakenly use to translate the biblical phrase despite its not having this meaning. It means “person” in the Torah.
Some translations render meodecha as “might,” but since “might” is implied in “person,” the rabbis suggested “possessions.”
The rabbis correctly understood the phrases “bind them for a sign upon thine hand,” ”frontlets between thine eyes,” “write them upon the posts of thy house,” and “on thy gates.” These words were not to be understood literally. They were telling Jews to think of God even on these occasions.
The rabbis ensured that Jews did so by instituting the requirement to wear tefillin on the head and arm and placing mezuzot on houses and gates.
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[1] It may surprise some readers who expect the Sidur, the prayer book, to be filled with praise of God and petitions to Him for divine assistance. The Jewish concept is different. The Sidur is a compilation of various ancient documents inserted to make readers think of the past, present, and future, and judge themselves whether they are acting to improve themselves as they should. The word lihitpallel, meaning “to pray,” literally means “to judge oneself.”
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Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin is a retired brigadier general in the U.S. Army Chaplain Corps and the author of more than 50 books.